Despite high initial vaccination rates, 10-20% of children in Pakistan fail to receive their third dose of the oral polio vaccine, contributing to the continued transmission of the virus.
Observational
What are the challenges and coverage rates of polio immunization in Pakistan?
Inadequate service delivery and lack of information lead to a 10-20% dropout rate for the second and third doses of the polio vaccine in Pakistan.
BACKGROUND: This study is based on EPI (Expanded Program on Immunization) immunization surveys and surveillance of polio, its challenges in immunization and the way forward to overcome these challenges. METHODS: Several Government documents, survey reports and unpublished program documents were studied and online search was made to find information on EPI Pakistan. SPSS 16 and Microsoft Excel 2007 were used for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: Immunization against polio is higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas. Marked variation in vaccination has been observed in different provinces of Pakistan in the last decade. Secondly 10-20% of the children who have received their first dose of trivalent polio vaccine were deprived of their 2nd and 3rd dose because of poor performance of EPI and Lack of information about immunization. CONCLUSION: In spite of numerous successes, such as the addition of new vaccines and raising immunization to over 100% in some areas, EPI is still struggling to reach its polio eradication goals. Inadequate service delivery, lack of information about immunization and limited number of vaccinators were found to be the key reason for poor performance of immunization and for large number of cases reported each year due to the deficiency of second and third booster dose.
Shah et al. (Sun,) conducted a observational in Poliomyelitis. Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) was evaluated on OPV III immunization coverage and polio case counts. Despite high initial vaccination rates, 10-20% of children in Pakistan fail to receive their third dose of the oral polio vaccine, contributing to the continued transmission of the virus.